Active Sellers: Be Cautious of This Situation

I am an active domain seller, and I list my domain names for sale in several places, including forums, aftermarket marketplaces, and via private offers. I just realized I nearly put myself in a bad situation, and I want to make you aware of the potential for this type of situation.

Last week, I put a domain name for sale on a domain forum with a buy it now price. The name was also listed on Sedo, and it received an offer significantly lower than my BIN price on the forum a couple of days ago. I counter offered the buyer, he counter offered me, and I made one more counter offer, to which I have not heard back.

At this point in time, I am interested in selling this domain name quickly, so I was about to reduce the price on the forum. Just as I was going to do that, I realized I could get myself into a jam.

If I were to reduce my price on the forum and someone buys it, the counter offer I made on Sedo would still be available for that buyer to accept my offer. Should that happen, I would have two people who rightfully agreed to buy the domain name at my asking price, and I would obviously only be able to follow through with one. It would be an ethical dilemma that at best would leave a stain on my reputation, and at worst, it could lead to legal issues.

If you have an open negotiation thread at Sedo or other marketplace, you should probably not try to sell the domain name elsewhere at the same time. It’s a bit frustrating that I can’t cancel the negotiation from my control panel, but if I was a buyer contemplating a purchase, I would want to retain all the time given to me.

If you have more than one sales thread or outstanding offer, you need to retain control over them all, or else you could find yourself in a bad predicament.

About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, LLC, a company that has sold seven figures worth of domain names in the last five years. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest.

5 COMMENTS

Same thing is happening to me but remember, your
counter offer with Sedo is only good for 7 days before you
can cancel negotiations. I have 3 people looking to buy
a domain I own so I can’t wait until Friday so I can cancel my
Sedo negotiations!

When responding to domain forum threads which ask for domain prices I normally include the comment “currently available at SEDO” which means that five minutes after I post my response someone else could have purchased it. For most domains at SEDO, Afternic, Godaddy Premium Listings I have fixed prices so open offers aren’t normally an issue.

Lots of things to keep track of when domaining. You can add deleting your names from Sedo, Afternic, etc. if you let them drop. Or if you have them listed on Godaddy premium service (BIN), that is another consideration. Theoretically you could agree to a sale then the domain could sell automatically if you have it listed somewhere at BIN. Best to set most domains to ‘Make Offer’ or a minimum offer to avoid this.

John Colascione on I Bought a 4 Word .com Domain Name@Dave, I actually read this post yesterday before looking into it again. It had been a year since I revisited the list. This post was

Arockiam J (@Arojagan) on I Bought a 4 Word .com Domain NameActivatingDesire, ActivatingServices would have been a better name than just activating. If only two domains available say Activating.com and LickMyNose.com which one you will buy?

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